It's after school...finally. Actually going to this address is like holding in your pee for10 hours and then finally hitting the toilet jackpot – it's total euphoria. I enter the address on my phone and allow the navigation system to tell me where to go.

"Here I come, Makai.

I travel for two hours, growing intensely antsy as the sun goes down. What if this leads to nowhere? What if Makai isn't here and I just find another note? 

In my driver-safe car, my phone tells me through the speakers that Aero is calling me. 

A flare of anger wells up in me at the way he went along with everyone at lunch today. Using the buttons on my wheel, I answer it, telling myself I'm only talking to him to take my mind off of going to 4512, wherever that is. 

"Reyna?"

"That's my name," I grumble. "And you've already worn it out." 

"Where are you?" he asks. I open my mouth to tell when I hear voices in the background – girl voices. The voices of Allister and Adelina and Maren, to be exact. He'strying to get information out of me because they're at a dead end. Hanzo whispers something and I hear Aero say "ok." "Reyna, you there?" 

"No," I blatantly respond. "Did you want something?" 

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. Your car wasn't in the parking lot when school got out and you weren't at home."

"Good job figuring out where I wasn't, Detective King," I spit. 

 Aero sighs. "Reyna, knock it off. They found Destiny's body."

 "Cool," I absentmindedly respond.

 "It was in the backyard lake."

 "Cool," I repeat. 

 I hear Maren say, "She probably already knows." 

Do they have the nerve to put me on speaker? "Yeah," I agree. "She also knows that you're all a bunch of assholes fishing for information because you have none." I hang up and take a right.

My directions lead me to a rusty gate in the woods, the lock hanging limply around a rotted wooden post. I park and get the crowbar from my trunk. I leave my phone in the car because if something is in the house, I don't want to give myself away with a pitiful" sorry I iced you out" call from my "friends." 

I hop over the gate and head along the not-so-worn dirt path. Far down, I'm able to make out a single abandoned house. There's one door from what I can see, and whatever windows there were have been shattered and boarded up. My heart races and I begin to regret coming here alone. But I imagine Makai being here alone with the killer. With whoever is torturing him or hurting him. I tighten my grip on the crowbar and keep going. If Makai was here, we'd all still be together. 

Maybe Makai was the glue – not me. But if I wasn't the glue, then what was I?

I make it to the house, wet blades of untrimmed grass slapping at my legs and mosquitos buzzing around my ears. Gnats attract to the sweat on the back of my neck and my breath comes out in huffs and puffs. "For Makai," I remind myself. I think of the time I plucked a twig out of his hair and waved goodbye to him after Della pissed me off. Makaidisappeared on Sunday and it's Tuesday...these three days have felt like a century of hell. 

I look up, and limply hanging off the edge of the roof are the numbers 4512. This is it. 

 I march up the stairs, and my foot hits the wrong spot and the board gives way. I hiss as the wood rakes at my moist skin and his even more as I jerk my foot back out. I skip over the last step and stand at the porch. There's not a doorknob, but a handle like you'd see at the restaurant, Chili's, or something. There's a chain around it, and one in good condition. I find the lock and forget about being quiet. If Makai is in there, now could be my only chance to find out.

With a strength I didn't know I had, I attack the lock until it breaks and falls off. I put it in my pocket as a souvenir. Hurriedly, I loop the chains through the handles until it comes undid. Now, I open the door. 

The inside is dark – almost unable to see, dark. It smells of must, faeces, rotting milk, and death...not the kind of smell you'd hope to find your friend in. The room is small. To my right, there's an old TV stand. I open the drawers, searching for any hint of Makai. All the drawers are empty. 

To my left, two cribs have been eaten away by termites. There's an old ragdoll amongst some moth-eaten blankets. I walk back towards the centre of the house when there's a loud and clearly audible creak from where I stand. I wish I had brought my phone to use as a flashlight.

I feel around the dust and the mushy wood and old rat skeletons and find a handle. 

Just then, I hear a car pull into the area, and I know I'm toast. "Shit, shit, shit, shit," I say as I open the handle and realize there are steps that lead to a basement. Rapidly, I descend. It's darker in here than it was up there. Keeping my eyes glued on where I entered, I back up, preparing myself to have a heart attack. 

This is the perfect place to kill someone...great job for just walking in, Reyna. I run into something large that was placed into a chair, and both it and I go toppling down. I let out a yip as I fall on my shoulder, and so does the thing.

"Who is this?" they ask. "Back already, psycho?" the voice bites. 

"I don't know what you're talking about. Is there a light in here?" I ask, on the verge of tears. The only thing that keeps the tears from falling is either bravery or adrenaline. I run into a spider web that feels oddly coarse.

It's not a spider web, you idiot!

Firmly, I grasp onto it and tug at it. Light floods the small radius around me. There's a knife with old blood on it and I fill with dread. I pick it up and look towards the entry when I see him. He's on the ground, tied to a chair, facing away, but I know it's him. 

 I slide on the ground, furiously sawing away at the bonds around his wrists and ankles and torso. "Makai?" I croak. I know he was alive a minute ago. How fragile of a state is hein?

"Reyna?" he questions, voice happier than any of my words could describe.

 Hope and happiness and relief flood my body. "Oh, my God, Makai. I found you..."

Once the bonds have been released, he turns to look at me, and I can't get over all the changes he's already endured. The bruises he bears, the bags under his eyes, the small cuts on his face...but mostly I can't get over the IV's in his arms. Carefully, I take them out. He groans as they slide out. "These are huge," I say. Finally, tears start to pour all over my face and my nose begins to run like it's in a marathon. "You're alive," I say. Whether it's for him or me, I can't tell. 

"You're okay," he says in disbelief, hand reaching out to touch my face. "He didn't hurt you..." 

A bottomless pit opens up in my stomach. "Who didn't hurt me?'

"I don't know his name, but he's the one who takes the blood out of the bodies. my god, Reyna, I'm so glad you're alive.

"You thought I was going to die?" 

Makai bites his lip and he pulls me into a giant bear hug, stroking my hair and telling me how worried he was. I hug him back, repeating to him that I'm okay and he's okay. 

Above, the floorboards shuffle and dust falls onto our heads. 

 Dreadfully, Makai looks up. "He's coming...hurry, put me back in my chair. Reyna, when he comes down, you run as fast as you can, okay?"

"Makai, I'm not leaving you." 

He smiles and tears fly down his blue and purple cheeks. "You have to." 

 I put the knife in his hand, and he takes it. 

The door opens and a single man takes his time coming down the steps. "What do you want?" Makai questions. "Wait, don't tell me...money." 

The figure dresses in a body-consuming dark cloak with his hood on. "We haven't met before, Makai Keanu. Do you know who I am?"

Makai's chest goes up and down at a pace too fast for settle. "You're the guy who kills people...who kill my friends." 

 "Ahh, yes. My young apprentice taught you well. He's out, now, coming back from planting Destiny's body in the bottom of the lake..." his voice is automated, just like the one on my CD...

The figure descends the staircase. 

 "You can kill me," Makai says, "But they'll find you." 

 "Who is that, exactly?" 

 "The police...my friends." 

 "I own the police," the voice roars. "I own your friends."

 I step out from the darkness and bash the man in the back of the head with the crowbar. "Own this, bitch," I growl.

Already, the man begins to get up. I grab Makai by the arm. "Go!" I demand. "Come on, hurry up." Makai stumbles and stumbles, barely able to hold up his own weight. As the masked man begins to stand up, I bring the bar back down on his spine. "Get to my car!" I warn. 

"Stop!" the man begs, holding a hand out.

With the last bit of my strength, I slam him in the head, hearing a split in his skull. Suddenly, his body goes limp and he doesn't move. Wearily, I bend down by him like a pool of blood starts to form. I flip his body face-up and feel his pulse by his neck. Nothing. Can the killer really be dead already?

I rip the mask off.

 Grief floods my stomach. 

 A jock in our grade lies dead on the ground. Taped to his chest, there's a note.

Don't think you can outsmart me that well, Reyna.

I flashback to the night of Destiny's party, when I walked by the hot tub and one of the guys yelled my named and showered me in chlorinated water. This was him. He was harmless. I played right into the killer's game and I killed an innocent man. 

 Now I'm the killer. 

"Makai..." I suddenly remember. Stifling a cry, I dash up the stairs and sprint out of the house. Makai Keanu is nowhere in sight. At my car, I realize someone slashed my tires. I get in the driver's seat and see a CD on the passenger's chair. There's a sticky note that says:

PLAY ME

I call Triple A for help and give them my location. In the meantime, I turn my car on just enough for the radio and CD player to work. With a trembling hand, I take the note-off and try to slide the disc in the slot. But my hand's shaking too much. The CD is going everywhere but where I want it to be. "Come on..." I grunt. As if sensing my impatience, it goes in. I sniff and listen to what the killer wants me to hear. 

What the disc has to offer brings back years and years of repressed trauma as if killing an innocent man wasn't traumatic enough. I sob until it hurts, hunched over my steering wheel. Do I call the police? What did Della do with her mom? Do I just act like I never did it?

The audio of the disc gives me a hint as to why the killings are happening in the first place. Gives me a hint as to how it's all connected.

 I'll give you a hint: it's the suicide that happened "just down the hall."